CNN: Military Sources Respond To McCain's Escalation Remark
With 'Laughter Down The Line'

Yesterday, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) told radio host Bill
Bennett that President Bush's escalation is working. "There are neighborhoods
in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today,"
he said. Today, when CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked McCain why Americans still
aren't able to safely leave the Green Zone in Iraq, the senator replied
that Blitzer was giving three-month-old talking points:

General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee.
I think you oughta catch up. You are giving the old line of three months
ago. I understand it. We certainly don't get it through the filter of
some of the media.

But according to CNN reporter Michael Ware, who has been in Iraq for
four years, McCain is "way off base." He stated, "To suggest
that there's any neighborhood in this city where an American can walk
freely is beyond ludicrous. I'd love Sen. McCain to tell me where that
neighborhood is and he and I can go for a stroll."

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Ware also rebutted McCain's assertion that Petaeus travels in an unarmed
humvee: "[I]n the hour since Sen. McCain's said this, I've spoken
to military sources and there was laughter down the line. I mean, certainly
the general travels in a humvee. There's multiple humvees around it, heavily
armed." Watch it: